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Chloe Loung

Lauded bartender Shelley Tai opened her bar, Mius, on Gough Street in Hong Kong’s Central neighbourhood in August 2025. Half a year on, her sommelier husband, Mason Ng, has launched his own venture, Maison Natsukashii, a few doors down.
But while Tai’s bar is designed to be “comfortable” and “easily understood by everyone”, Ng takes the opposite approach.
“Some people actually complain that we’re not friendly enough,” he says of the initial feedback. “But you do not have to like us.”
Other than during its early evening slot from 5pm to 6pm, when by-the-glass offerings are available, Maison Natsukashii only serves by the bottle.

Ng, who was crowned the best sommelier in Asia and Oceania in 2022 by the International Association of Sommeliers, has designed this format to attract only wine fanatics like himself.
“We’re not trying to go for the masses. We’re trying to go for a very dedicated type of people who are focused and who know what they want,” he says.
Ng has long had a passion for wine. When he was 19, he dropped out of university in Hong Kong and moved to Singapore to pursue a career in the industry.
He learned the foundations of French wine at the three-Michelin-star restaurant Les Amis and later became an official ambassador of wine from Hokkaido in Japan.
His wine bar – maison is French for “house” and natsukashii is a Japanese word expressing nostalgic longing – is Ng’s passion project and an ode to his journey so far.
The intimate space has fewer than 20 seats, and low lighting, homestyle decor and jazz music create a cosy vibe.

The extensive wine list features 500 bottles with a focus on natural wines and rare finds from small producers in Burgundy and Hokkaido. Because visitors are often serious about their selections, Ng keeps mark-ups intentionally low, removing a barrier to exploration. Bottles start from as low as HK$400 (US$50).
The bar is run by a team of three comprising Ng, another sommelier and a chef. Every detail is engineered to remove distractions and facilitate connection with the wine and quiet enjoyment with friends.
In a way, the concept is having no concept.
There is no focus on appealing to customers after Instagrammable drinks. Instead, Ng aims to host like-minded people looking to appreciate good wine in an authentic, grounded setting.
“We do not really want to be just another trendy spot,” Ng says. “It would be nice, because you constantly keep your place full, you can get a lot of traction from the media, people coming in to take photos. But if we entertain those people, then you sort of push away the actual wine enjoyers. We want to keep it a niche.”
Though this may not appeal to everyone, it does exactly what Ng intended: it invites specific, knowledgeable clientele who understand the value – and shared pleasure – of committing to a full bottle.
Unlike other cities in which he has worked, where he has had to extensively promote wines from lesser-known regions, he says Hong Kong guests often arrive with a clear intent. It is not unusual to see people meticulously study the wine list – which Ng dubs “the bible” – line by line for half an hour before ordering.

The bar’s design and rules create an ecosystem that draws committed wine appreciators who, in turn, help maintain the focused, intimate mood that Ng looks for.
“They want a place that’s quiet, where they can just chill,” he says. “That’s the nostalgia we’re trying to build.”
The food follows the same ethos, with a menu featuring simple yet elegant small plates: a bouillabaisse with the day’s fish, Bolognese rice and classic pastas. Noticeably absent is fried food, a bar staple.
“We just focus on comfort food,” Ng says. “The idea is dishes that make you feel like you’re coming to somebody’s house. What’s even better than fancy things is making simple things solid.”
Despite opening on December 31 with no marketing, Maison Natsukashii has found an audience, regularly filling its seats through word of mouth.
The most supportive of those customers is, of course, Ng’s wife, with whom he has created a “nice little ecosystem” in which he sends cocktail fans down the street to Mius, and she points wine enthusiasts towards Maison Natsukashii.
Ng says that the community of local bar owners in Central is supportive rather than cutthroat despite competing for customers in what is arguably Hong Kong’s most saturated nightlife area. They frequently visit each other’s establishments.

Ng attributes this to Hong Kong’s walkability, which is in contrast to Singapore – where the market is equally international and selections vast, but bars are more spread out.
He also points to Singapore’s late-night surge in taxi fares that makes barhopping prohibitively expensive, along with licensing laws that impose heavy fines for serving alcohol past midnight.
During his decade spent in the city state, Ng found that the infamously strict regulations stifled the spontaneous drinking culture he craved.
“It curbs people’s mentality,” he says. “You might as well just stay home and drink there. Why bother going out?”
Hong Kong was a revelation. The zero wine tax, the walkable, densely packed neighbourhoods, and the absence of restrictive curfews provided the foundations for a much more dynamic scene.
“I definitely prefer the scene in Hong Kong. I think it’s a lot more vibrant,” Ng says.
Although Maison Natsukashii’s warm reception has exceeded expectations, with the bar already being booked out until mid-February, Ng says he is uninterested in expanding the business and instead just wants to “keep it grounded and stable”.
“We can’t make everybody happy, but we can make some people very happy.”
Maison Natsukashii, Shop 2, 49-51 Gough St, Central. Reservations can be made online here.


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Sommelier Mason Ng Yin-song poses for a photo at wine bar Maison Natsukashii in Central. 31JAN26 SCMP / Karma Lo

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The entrance to Maison Natsukashii. Photo: Karma Lo

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Champion sommelier Mason Ng designed his Maison Natsukashii to attract wine fanatics like himself who ‘know what they want’


Champion sommelier Mason Ng designed his Maison Natsukashii to attract wine fanatics like himself who ‘know what they want’.


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.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Champion sommelier Mason Ng designed his Maison Natsukashii to attract wine fanatics like himself who ‘know what they want’

Champion sommelier Mason Ng designed his Maison Natsukashii to attract wine fanatics like himself who ‘know what they want’